Bath Buns

You may not be able to take tea and buns in the glorious setting of the Pump Room in bath, to the strains of classical music very often, but with the aid of your bread machine you can make a very good version of a Bath bun at home. There’s nothing to stop you turning your radio to some soothing music and dreaming while you eat your bun.

Ingredients

Recipe

1egg yolk (keep the white for finishing the buns; beat it lightly first)

50g butter, diced

1tsp. salt

2tbsp. caster sugar

300g strong bread flour

1/2 tsp. quick yeast

75g raisins &amp; sultanas, mixed

25g candies peel, finely chopped

4or 5 white sugar lumps, crushed in a pestle and mortar

Bath Buns Directions

You will need a large greased baking tray

1.Put the warm water, egg, egg yolk and butter into the bread pan. Add the salt and sugar, placing them at different ends of the pan. Put the flour on top and finally the yeast. Set the machine to the Dough programme with Raisin option – either put the fruit and candies peel into the raisin compartment, if your machine has one, or wait for, or set, the raisin beep and add them when it sounds.

2.Once the dough is ready, lightly flour your hands and turn it out onto a floured board. Divide the dough equally into 12 pieces, mould gently into rounds between your cupped palms, and put them onto the prepared baking tray; the dough will be quite rich and soft to the touch. Leave them in a warm place until they are practically half as big again.

3.Brush gently with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with the crushed sugar lumps. Bake in a preheated oven at your normal bread baking temperature of 180-220C (fan oven) or equivalent for approximately 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.